A continuing need exists for an improved system to verify and authenticate documents. The need exists in various fields for an apparatus to function in cooperation with documents that can be determined to be genuine and unmodified. Many forms of ID cards are employed in various applications embodied, for example, as passes, permits, licenses, financial cards and so on. Accordingly, several systems have been proposed to verify a specific form of card at an authentication terminal. One class of such systems utilizes indicia printed or otherwise affixed to a document as a basis for the authentication. For an identification card, the indicia might take the form of a fingerprint, a photograph, an account number or a signature.
An efficient indicia-based document verification system involves several considerations including, the ease of deciding the card's authenticity, the processing speed for attaining such a decision and the reliability of making the decision without error. In addition to detecting fakes, the system should not accept cards with an altered image. Yet, the system must not reject genuine cards with a stained, worn or faded image. If a genuine, unaltered card is rejected, it is embarrassing to all concerned and may even prompt legal action. In general, the system of the present invention responds to these considerations.
The system of the present invention may be embodied as a small, self-contained, point-of-use terminal that functions in cooperation with specific documents, e.g. a form of identification card. Each card carries image indicia along with an escort memory representative of at least a portion of the image indicia. For example, as image data, a card might contain the name of the holder, his card number and his photograph, any or all of which could be carried as image data (pixels) in a machine-readable form.
The card, embodied as an identification card, might take the specific form of a credit card or any of a multitude of other formats and may incorporate other features to secure the identification. For example, the card might incorporate features for on-line operation, value decrementing, alternative anticounterfeit characteristics and so on In the disclosed embodiment, a simple identification card is disclosed utilizing the elements of the present invention.
The terminal of the present invention senses the card both with respect to the image test data and data from the escort memory to provide sets of data which are correlated to authenticate the card. The correlation may be revealed as a result and also is revealed as a two-dimensional display of test results related to the image of interest. The display reveals specific areas of the card where a favorable comparison did not result from the correlation. Accordingly, an operator is provided an effective interface with the terminal to assist greatly in determining the authenticity of marginal or questionable cards.